Daughter of Pakistan’s ex-envoy to S Korea was found
beheaded in F-7 residence a day before Eid
Zubair Qureshi
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Qazi Jamilur Rehman on Friday instructed the investigation team probing the brutal killing of 27-year old Noor Mukadam, daughter of a former Pakistani ambassador to South Korea, to seek the placement of suspect Zahir Zakir Jaffer’s name on the Exit Control List (ECL).
According to a statement issued by the Islamabad police spokesperson, Noor, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 a day before Eid (Tuesday).
The IGP, in a meeting with the investigation team and after visiting the crime scene, directed them to recommend to the relevant authority that the suspect’s name be placed on the no-fly list.
He also instructed the team to acquire Jaffer’s criminal records from the United States and United Kingdom and asked them to approach the relevant quarters for this purpose.
The police chief further recommended that the evidence collected from the crime scene be sent for forensic analysis.
“The case should be concluded in the light of concrete evidence at the earliest,” the statement quoted the IGP as saying. “All the requirements for justice should be met so that the culprit be handed severe punishment.”
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) has demanded that the cases of violence and abuse against women and children be heard by anti-terrorism courts and a time limit be set for verdicts in such cases.
The council urged Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed to take notice, and expressed its concern over the recent surge in cases of violence and abuse against women and children.
“Cases such as Noor Mukadam and Usman Mirza bring disrepute to the country and the nation,” the statement read, adding that such cases were an indication that terror, frustration and sexual violence were on the rise in society.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Jaffer under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father late on Tuesday, after his arrest.
Later, police had obtained a three-day remand of the suspect from a local court, while officials had said they were investigating the suspect’s motive for allegedly killing the woman.
In his complaint, Shaukat Mukadam had stated that he had gone to Rawalpindi on July 19 to buy a goat for Eidul Azha, while his wife had gone out to pick up clothes from her tailor.
When he returned home in the evening, the couple found their daughter Noor absent from their house in Islamabad.
They found her cellphone number to be switched off, and started a search for her. Sometime later, Noor called her parents to inform them that she was travelling to Lahore with some friends and would return in a day or two, according to the FIR.
On Tuesday afternoon, however, the complainant said he received a call from Zahir, son of Zakir Jaffer, whose family was the ex-diplomat’s acquaintances. Zahir informed Mukadam that Noor was not with him, the FIR said.
At around 10pm the same day, the victim’s father received a call from Kohsar police station, informing him that Noor had been murdered.
Police subsequently took the complainant to Zahir’s house in Sector F-7/4 where he discovered that his “daughter has been brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded”, according to the FIR.
Mukadam, who identified his daughter’s body, sought the maximum punishment under the law against Zahir for allegedly murdering his daughter.
Police had initially said the victim was shot at before being “slaughtered”. Another person was also injured in the incident.
However, the investigation officer of the case said on Thursday that while a pistol had been found at the suspect’s house, the initial investigation and medical report did not show a firearm injury in the incident. He added that a bullet was stuck in the pistol’s chamber at the time it was recovered.
He said the servants present in the house at the time of the incident had also been included in the investigation and were being questioned on various points such as the duration for which Noor was present in the suspect’s house.
